


An Unusual Canvas

by vhsrights



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Butterflies, F/F, Family Fluff, Fluff, Momily, Toddler, Tumblr Prompt, it's soft and cute, painting on walls, they have a daughter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-11 23:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29875818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vhsrights/pseuds/vhsrights
Summary: The soft footfalls of the little girl running on hardwood echoed against the walls. Her dark, silky curls bounced around her shoulders, flying freely behind her. Eyes full of sparkle, the girl was focused on her task. Small fingers grasped tighter around the brushes in her hand. She had to make sure that she got everything that her mama had asked for.
Relationships: Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/Emily Prentiss
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	An Unusual Canvas

The soft footfalls of the little girl running on hardwood echoed against the walls. Her dark, silky curls bounced around her shoulders, flying freely behind her. Eyes full of sparkle, the girl was focused on her task. Small fingers grasped tighter around the brushes in her hand. She had to make sure that she got everything that her mama had asked for. 

“Leia? Bird? Is that you?” The older woman was turned to face the far wall, her body perking up at the click of the doorjamb. 

“Mama! I got the bushes!” The little girl lowered off of her tiptoes and pushed the door open. 

“Brushes, Bird, they’re called brushes. Thank you. Are you ready?” The girl enthusiastically offered her hand forward, teeming with bristled brushes, to Emily. 

Emily turned around and beamed at her daughter. Today, JJ was going out to run errands and Emily was going to paint Leia’s room. Well, she’d had a better idea but JJ didn’t need to know about that just yet. The girl in front of her somehow had managed to look like a spitting image of herself and her wife. That was one of the perks of being able to pick your donor, she believed. 

“Br-bru-brushes.” The girl sounded the word out slowly, just like her Mommy had done when she taught her how to say “snack”. “Look, Mama, I said it! Brushes! Yeah, I wanna paint.”

Emily nodded zealously at the girl’s accomplishment and noted the twinkle in her eye. It was one that she saw in JJ’s when the blonde was focused on a task. She took the brushes from Leia and sprawled them on the dark mat that covered the light carpet. Turning to her side, she pulled the two paint cans close to the brushes, creating their “painting station”. Leia excitedly clapped her hands, ready to paint. 

“Okay, so we are going to paint your room a nice yellow color. Then, I have a special surprise for you. Does that sound good?” When she received a staggering yes, Emily turned her attention back to the light, yellow paint can. 

The girl nodded her head and pushed back her sleeves, copying Emily. She beckoned the little girl to her, spinning her around to pull her hair into a loose ponytail. They didn’t need paint getting in Leia’s hair too. Walking back to her spot on the wall, Leia clapped her hands. It was now time to paint. The floor was safely covered and the girls had everything they needed. 

Emily reached over and handed Leia a wide, dark-bristled brush. She popped open the tin of paint, tediously demonstrating to Leia how to dip her brush in and remove the excess paint on the side. Leia’s eyes followed her every move and took in every detail. JJ and Emily had understood that her observation and logic skills were highly developed since she was a baby, making things more interesting for them. Mimicking her Mama’s motions, Leia got a large glob of paint on her brush. She looked over at Emily, hesitant to make the first mark. 

“Together, Bird.” Emily held hope in her eyes, pushing Leia to smile as they simultaneously touched their brushes to the wall. 

“Look, Mama! I’m doing it!” Her brushstrokes were even as she artfully glided her brush against the wall. She squealed out of excitement.

“Wow, Bird, that’s great. Why don’t we cover a little bit more with yellow before I tell you about the surprise?” Emily glanced over at the girl’s work, impressed at her proficiency. _A natural artist, JJ will love that._ “Just do that little bit by your knees and then we can stop with the yellow.”

“Okay, Mama.” Leia’s eyebrows furrowed and her tongue stuck out a little bit as she focused on her painting once more. Emily admired her daughter while setting down her own wide brush, selecting smaller brushes, and bringing the other paint forward. 

“I’m done.” The little girl set down her brush and looked expectantly at Emily. “Surprise time?”

“Yes, Bird, surprise time. I know this is your room, and you picked the yellow, so I had an idea. We can do something to make the room really pretty and then show Mommy when she gets home. Do you want to draw butterflies with me?” Emily beamed at her daughter, knowing how much JJ would love the butterflies on the wall.

“Butterfly?” It took Leia a little bit of time to process. “Yeah, I wanna do it, Mama! We can make the room pretty for Mommy.”

“Sounds great, Bird. Okay then, pick a color to paint with. Do you want blue or red?” She gestured to the paint cans in front of the little girl.

“Blue! Blue! Mommy loves blue and I do too, so I wanna paint with blue.” Leia bounced up and down excitedly, teeming with new energy at the thought of drawing butterflies. 

Emily and Leia giggled as they set up to draw their butterflies. Both took smaller brushes and carefully brought their paint to where they needed it. Leia sat on the ground beside Emily, eyeing her mama for directions on what to do. 

“Okay, Bird, the first thing you’re gonna do is get some black and make a small, fat line like this.” The woman cautiously made the middle of the butterfly, making sure the paint didn’t run. She then turned her attention to what Leia was doing. “Perfect, just like that. You can stop it there.”

Guiding the little girl, Emily helped her draw the curved outline of each wing. They went slowly, monitoring the inching paintbrush extremely carefully. Satisfied with each exaggerated curve, Emily and Leia admired each of their butterfly outlines. Emily’s was heavily intricate, exhibiting multiple patterns and intricate lines. Every delicate stroke popped against the light wall, making Emily that much more excited to show JJ.

“Bird, are you ready to dry it? I have to use the hairdryer so that it’s not wet when we add your blue and my red.” Emily inquired the young girl was examining her dark outline on the wall. “I have it right here so we can put it on high and do it quickly.”

“Okay, Mama. You can dry it. I wanna add the blue.” 

Leia backed away from the wall as Emily plugged in the dryer to the nearby outlet. The dryer was loud but it was efficient. Leia giggled at the warm, high-powered heat and decided to blow on the wall as well to help the process. Emily’s eyes filled with tears of laughter at her daughter’s adorable behavior. Several minutes passed and eventually the wall was dry. 

“Mama, I dried it. Look, the butterfly is hot.” 

“Yes, Bird, you did! Alright, now let’s add your blue and my red. Are you ready?”

“Mhmm. Let’s do it, Mama.”

Leia and Emily simultaneously dipped their brushes into their paint, eyeing the butterflies on the wall. Letting out a deep sigh, Leia followed Emily and put her first line of paint. She had been doing coloring books since she was a kid and staying in the lines had never been a problem for her. It may have been a shock to JJ and Emily, but this was the big leagues. No mess-ups were really allowed. The girl’s eyebrows furrowed once more, her tongue barely poking out from between her lips as she carefully added the blue to the yellow wall. 

She had just finished a piece of the left-wing when she accidentally hit her brush against Emily’s arm. The blue was vibrant against her pale skin, the streak covering a part of her forearm. Leia froze and looked up to her Mama in surprise. Her lips moved to quickly form an “O”, not knowing what to say. 

Emily didn’t look mad at her, so what was going to happen? The amusement on the brunette’s face intensified as she formed a plan. Opening all of the paint tins had already left residual pain on her hands, some accumulating perfectly on the tip of her pointer finger. Taking advantage of her daughter’s shock and letting her childish nature take over, Emily quickly bopped Leia’s nose. 

The paint was cool against her nose and it took Leia a full 5 seconds to register what Emily had done. She crossed her eyes in hopes of seeing what had happened to her nose and spotted the paint. 

“Mama, my nose is red! You put red on my nose.” Leia spoke with surprise lacing her voice. Emily tried her best to keep her laughter from bursting out. 

“I did, Bird. You look like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.” Emily joked lightly as she tilted her head, examining Leia’s nose more. 

“Rudoff? He looks funny.” 

With that, Leia dissolved into giggles. She decided to copy Emily and touched the end of her brush. Taking quick and unsteady steps forward, attempting to bop Emily’s nose. She missed and her paint-laden finger gave her a blue cheek instead. 

“Leia! Oh, come here you.” Emily laughed and grabbed Leia, who squealed as Emily took her thumb and ran it in a curved line across her forehead. 

The two had gotten lost in their antics enough that they missed the sound of JJ’s shoes clicking against the hardwood. The blonde heard the two’s chuckles from down the hallway and wondered what was so funny. Emily was supposed to be painting Leia’s room. So what had they gotten into?

“Guys? What are you two doing?” JJ asked as she pushed the door open. 

Emily and Leia froze. _Mommy’s home._ Without another thought, Emily turned the little girl around and held her up to JJ.

“Look, Jen. Simba.” The brunette looked slightly ridiculous sitting on the ground, their 5-year-old held up in her hands. Leia didn’t understand what just happened. 

“What?”

“Simba,” Emily repeated herself with mirth on her face. 

“You’re such a goof. Leia, what were you guys doing?” JJ turned to ask their daughter, knowing that Emily would not tell her what she wanted to hear. 

“Making butterflies for you, Mommy. See, I made the blue one.” Leia dropped to the ground and pointed to her painting on the wall.

JJ almost gasped out of shock. Her first thought was to worry, but knowing Emily and how much she cared for Leia, there soon wasn’t a doubt in her mind that everything had been done correctly. The paintings were beautiful and so was her family. 

“Aww, baby. They look so cute! Here, I’ll help you and we can put more butterflies on the wall.” JJ took off her shoes and coat, lowering to the ground on the other side of Leia. Giving Emily one loving glance, the family giggled and returned to their painting. 

**Author's Note:**

> hehehehe :) a momily prompt OS [again if you have any that you want me to write, feel free to send them to me on tumblr @vhsrights]


End file.
